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    Entries in fast and easy (72)

    Tuesday
    Jan152013

    French but not Fried

    And you thought I was nuts making a whole crock pot full of caramelized onions.

     

    One of the best ways to use up those deliciously dark alliums is in soup. Particularly one that also uses up stale bread.

    French onion soup seems like a treat a lot of the time. It's usually in the realm of restaurant fare only, which is strange given how easy it is to make. Particularly if you make the components in the crock pot and then freeze them until you want soup.

    A few weeks ago I dumped a frozen pound of stewing beef into the crock pot, covered it with water, and let it cook while I was at work all day. I had no idea what I was going to do with it when I got home, but I figured the meat would be ready, at least.

    Turns out, I also ended up with a crock pot full of beef broth. Well, into the freezer with that!

    Really, if you don't know what to do with something, toss it in the freezer. You'll find it one day and be totally inspired. And if you tend to forget what's in there, you can always keep a list on the door.

    So, I had a few things in the freezer, and I wanted something fancy looking for dinner.

    French Onion Soup

    • 3-4 cups beef broth
    • 1/2 c white wine (if you want)
    • a sprig of thyme
    • a bay leaf
    • black pepper
    • about a cup of caramelized onions
    • a few slices of stale-ish bread
    • ementhaller or swiss cheese

    You can use some kind of already prepared broth for this if you'd like, but please simmer it with the herbs for at least a few minutes. I mean, you have to bring it to a boil anyway, you might as well toss more flavour in at the same time.

    Get your oven broiler going and slice the bread if it isn't already.

    But before you do, move one of the racks up. I prefer to use the second highest spot.

    Combine the broth, booze, and herbs in a pot, and bring to a boil.

    Exactly half a cup. I don't need to measure.

    Let them simmer for asshort or as long as you'd like. I suggest about a half hour. The onions will need that long to thaw anyway.

    Once the onions are thawed and the broth is hot and simmered, divide them up between your bowls.

    Dinner for two in Corningware. I do have some oven proof bowls that were leftovers from the restaurant my parents owned, but they were smaller than the ramekins, and I wanted lots of soup. Any oven proof dish will work. And the look of the bowl won't change the flavour of the soup. I dare you to make it in a loaf pan.

    Trim the bread slices to fit the bowl as best you can and lay them out on a baking sheet. Toast each side under the broiler for a few minutes. Just golden. You can do this in a toaster, but I wasn't sure about the size and shape and didn't want to have to go digging in there with a fork.

    Have your cheese ready to go. Grate it if it's a block, or tear it if it's slices. We had slices because we'd just made another epic sammich.

    Set the toasty bread on top of the soup, cover it with cheese, and put it under the hot broiler right away.

    In no time at all the cheese will be a gooey golden lovely coat on top of the bread that's already half soaked with delicious beefy oniony broth.

    And dinner is served. And since that bottle of wine is already opened... may as well pour yourself a glass.

    Have you ever served soup in a loaf pan? What kind of serving dish have you had to improvise?

     

    Tuesday
    Dec112012

    skinned alive

    At least I think I'm still alive.

    I've never had a semester with such a brutal exam schedule. But, it's over. And I think my GPA made it out relatively unscathed.

    I on the other hand am exhausted, brain dead, and ready to sleep for a week. But first, dinner:

    I'm very much a fan of finger foods. No cutlery to wash. And since it's the time of year for entertaining (apparently in December, most people get to go to parties, and don't have to do metric shittonnes of calculus) I made an appetizer for dinner.

    Fast enough that you can make them long after the guests arrive, easy enough that you can make them long after the first bottle of wine is empty, and tasty enough that you won't have to figure out what to do with the leftovers.

    Potato Skins

    What you need:

    • 4 small baker potatoes
    • 1 c grated cheddar
    • 3 strips very crispy bacon
    • 2 green onions
    • 1/2 jalapeno (or a few rings of the pickled ones)

    What you gotta do:

    We at authorskitchen do not typically advocate cooking anything in the microwave, but there have been times when we've had to. And times when we totally regretted it. But when you're whipping up an appetizer for hungry guests, or brain dead engineering students, baking a potato in the microwave just really doesn't seem that bad.

    Just make sure you poke holes in them first.

    Mine took about 12 minutes, but I did them in 4 minute increments. 4 minutes seems a reasonable increment.

    They will be making steamy noises and will give under pressure if you squeeze them.

    Set these aside and let them cool while you chop the onions, crumble the bacon, grate the cheese, and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

    Once the potatoes are cool enough that you can hold them in your hand without wanting to toss them across the room at someone, roll them around on the counter or baking sheet first though to see which are their flat sides. Cut them in half so that the halves rest on the flat sides.

    Remove the potato innards with a small spoon. Leave a bit of an edge and enough on the bottom so that the filling will have something to sit on.

    Toss the cheese, bacon, etc. together and then divide it up between the skins. They will seem full, but trust me, they're not. I think about 1.5 times the amount of stuff I put in these, would be ideal.

    They only need about 7 minutes to bake.

    Bacon, melted cheese, eat with your hands. Perfect.

    I imagine most Americans will want to dip these in ranch dressing (srsly guys, what's with the fucking ranch on everything?) but I like a bit of sour cream spiked with some hot sauce.

    And there you go, less than 30 minutes and you've got tasty cups filled with bacon and cheese.

    What more could anyone want?